The sabotage occurred I suspect because the Blue Aliens tracking the Destiny have always wanted to take her intact and have no doubt been aboard several times prior to the crew arrival, but couldn't get the ship to operate properly.
They are powerful aliens, as their drive system, though apparently different in nature and maybe in function is at least as strong (distance wise) and fast (if not faster) as that of the Destiny. These aliens have definitely shown they can penetrate the hull of Destiny at any time they so wish, and so infiltration, as I have always suspected, has never really been an issue for them. Though they may have been unable to penetrate all of the sections of the ship they wish to penetrate.
They have tried on numerous occasions to delay Destiny from leaving the galaxy in which it has been operating, but then again they have apparently been aware of Density from before the crew arrived (and I suspect still have agents aboard Destiny). But in any case they have on several occasions sought to prevent Destiny from leaving the immediate area. Then again they can leave the entire galaxy without much trouble, as they have proven. In drive capabilities, and in many other ways, they are apparently technologically the equals, if not the superiors of the Destiny. However they also possess some deep interest in the craft and have not made efforts to kill the crew, or destroy the ship, as much as to suppress and gain control over both.
Their real trouble seems to have been tracking Destiny's exact location and controlling the ship since the human crew arrived. And that is the real problem for them, though they are aware of when Destiny will jump if Eli can be believed, for he apparently read that information from an alien interface. (So inexplicably could Chloe, exchanging information for telepathic mind control and learning to read complex script symbols are too very different forms of communication interface. If Virgil read your mind, and/or you his mind, do you think from that experience alone you'd be able to read Latin as a result?) The aliens apparently have the ability to track Destiny's jump clock even from the wreck of a long abandoned alien crash. But why, and by what means? I think they can track her easily enough in time, it is space they are losing her too. They are afraid of Destiny escaping not because they can't outrun her, but because they are losing control over precise tracking capabilities. Which they didn't have to worry about before.
(Maybe, because of their telepathic abilities they never developed as complex a technologically based communications system as Destiny or even the humans possess. For instance during jumps maybe they can't track her at all or maybe can't even communicate with their own agents. For instance if you had the eyes of an eagle, what pressure would you feel to develop binoculars? If you could hear like a wolf, would you develop a hearing aid? Technology usually is invented to compensate for a deficit in natural capability. If you could read minds then maybe you wouldn't feel as much pressure to develop other and more technologically based forms of communications, or maybe you'd just concentrate on developing communication technologies based around telepathy and ignore subspace radio.)
I am doubtful of the Lucian Alliance angle at this point, expect for one possibility. It has occurred to me that the Blue Aliens, upon discovering Density went aboard her (and some are still probably there), explored her, became intrigued by several things, and sought control over her. They were unable to exercise anything but limited physical control, probably because of genetic and other safeguards, and yet they were apparently able to gain some operational information. Once the humans showed the ship went into operation as if the human crew were the expected crew or an acceptable crew (and it being science fiction, maybe they were, or were one type of expected crew).
But if I were the Blue Aliens and I discovered Destiny, and if I were unable to gain full control over her, the next thing I would do is trace her origins, if possible. It is very possible that the Blue Aliens traced Destiny to her point of origin in the same way that Rush traced her through clues to her sitting position through the Chevron Address. The Blue Aliens just worked backwards along the same route as Rush had worked forwards from the point of origin to the last known position. If that is true, or possible, then it is possible that the Blue Aliens ran across the Lucian Alliance, or some other species in our galaxy, and this is how the original act of sabotage was arranged, or contrived. Either the Blue Aliens helped cosponsor the sabotage, were mentally manipulating some saboteur in our galaxy to their own ends, and it got out of hand, or some combination of related factors led to the destruction of the Destiny Gate.
But the fact remains that the Blue Aliens are imminently interested in the Destiny and apparently not because of her drive systems or weaponry, which apparently may even be primitive compared to their own drive systems. But there is something that they want or want to control aboard Destiny which I suspect the humans have yet to see or discover, since they have control and information about so limited an area aboard ship. (Indeed the humans themselves may have now become an important interest.)
As for the Kinos, I am becoming more and more doubtful that they were OME. They could have easily been planted aboard Destiny by the aliens, or at least some of them could now be under partial control of the aliens by this time. If I found anything aboard Destiny I would have a long time ago given up on assuming the stance that it is necessarily original equipment, was built by the shipwrights, or under complete control of the ship or the human crew.
The girl makes me suspicious as well, but then again many people aboard make me suspicious, for different reasons. And the girl could be operating under the impulse of purely internal psychological motivations. But I am also suspicious of her direct involvement of so many extraordinary events. And to be honest, just by force of habit and personal experience, I am always suspicious of anyone associated with a Senator.
One thing I don't understand at this point, given the small size of the crew, and the attrition rate, is why everyone aboard does not have a Battle Station? Every civilian aboard should have a Battle Station, even if it is a minor function. Everyone aboard should by now, in down time, be trained or training for combat, both ship combat, and personal combat. It is ridiculous, given their situation, to have a crew split into two separate functions. If the military personnel were disabled or even just entrapped, then the civilians would be basically helpless in a combat situation. This is not a pleasure cruise, but a survival crew. Everyone aboard should have a battle station, or be directed to some useful function during combat engagement or potential hostilities. There is no room aboard ship for a spectator crew.
In the same way all military personnel should have some scientific training and expertise, or should have some other useful function other than just a combat function. Civilians and military personnel should be cross training each other regularly. I don't understand how this could have not occurred to the crew given their peculiar situation. If it were my command I would have begun cross-training at the first available opportunity. Everyone should be able to pull weight in more than one way when lives are at stake, survival is paramount, and reprovision and relief is difficult, if not outright impossible.
okay here's something that just bugs the crap outta me about the communication stone thing. wouldn't the SGC have some rules in place about you can't take the host body out and go screwing your spouse/significant other with it?
You'd think they'd already have some protocol in place, wouldn't ya?
My bet, the Destiny sabotaged itself. It might have intentionally triggered the overload, and bet on the crew being able to fix the damaged section. It can respond to its own needs and the needs of the crew after all. At the same time, it is trapped following a fixed route and demanding schedule. It behaves somewhat like an Asimovian robot, trapped between the demands of conflicting Laws. For such a robot, blowing itself up is an acceptable solution to a complicated problem, and it makes sense that it couldn't use a more rational solution.
I might not draw the exact same conclusion but I've been convinced for a long time that Destiny is at least partially self-aware. If this is the result of design, experience, or later modification by aliens, it certainly seems to react to the human crew totally differently than it does to potential invaders.
I like the idea regarding the Asimovian AI moral dilemma.
It's interesting.
